Attitude Sickness

Some people live where the air is very thin. So high up that it must be such a laboring effort to find their next breath. Maybe that is why they are so intolerant of those “beneath them.” The bottom dwellers have only themselves to blame. The heady scent of struggling day-to-day to live. The stink of homelessness, rank odor of unrest and anxiety that hovers closer to the ground. The vapors of the poor and undeserving and the intrusive smell of the desperate. Not a place for the weak, and many succumb to addiction for escape. Oh it must be grand to live so high…so out of touch with the world below.

Some people live where the grass does not green. Striving for what someone else has, and willing to do whatever to get it. Combine this with living high in the thin air and the sickness of self-righteousness pervades. Feverish to get ahead at any cost and at the cost of others. To be so above everyone else…I would think they miss the flowers in bloom and the crickets chirp. Not one to discover a four-leaf clover or even find a hole in a favorite shoe…too busy living above the living.

Some people live where the sky is not blue. Always in fear of someone getting ahead of them colors their world with envy. Always afraid of what they will lose and wondering what they could gain. Never looking around and seeing the beauty of hope, the calm of love, the power of peace. No, they are too busy protecting themselves by keeping distant and high above as they peer down unaware of really living in touch with others.

Living high might include having shiny cars, nice homes and fat wallets. Living high might simply include a comfortable bed to sleep in and new clothes to wear and a full frig. But not everyone chooses to live above in the thin air. Some of us are not blinded from those around us. We do not suffer from the altitude/attitude sickness. We recognize the scent of desperation, the sweat of a hard day’s work with little pay and the odor of addiction to escape the pain. We support programs to help, we offer a hand up and a hug with respect. We breathe the same air, walk the same roads and we see others…really see them as part of our community called humanity.

So where do you choose to live? In the high tower, gilded with gold and pretties to remind you that you are success, special and above others? Or do you choose to live amongst the living, the air thick with life…the scent of struggle drifting by reminding you that others are not having an easy time of living…seeing the green grass under your feet, the blue sky above you and that tiny hole in your favorite shoes…